Do Cheap Chinese Goods Have to Mean Trade-Off in Quality?

[Omaha Steve]

http://money.aol.com/usat/general/canvas3/_a/recent-product-recalls-made-in-china-and/20070725144809990001

Do Cheap Chinese Goods Have to Mean Trade-Off in Quality?
by David J. Lynch


What Products Are Safe?


Killer pet food. Tainted toothpaste. Tires lacking an essential safety component. And now, seafood laced with potentially unhealthy levels of antibiotics.

Suddenly, "Made in China" looks like another way of saying: "Buyer beware."

In recent years, American consumers eagerly snapped up an ever-widening array of Chinese-made products, from Wal-Mart (WMT) T-shirts and Dell (DELL) laptops to Black & Decker (BDK) power drills and Ethan Allen (ETH) cabinets. It's no secret why multinational companies increased their reliance on Chinese factories: lower production costs. The recent spate of suspect Chinese imports, however, is raising troubling questions about the trade-offs involved in the relentless pursuit of rock-bottom prices.

"Sometimes, it's a shock to discover how poor the quality processes are," says Sebastien Breteau, chief executive of Asia Inspection, a Hong Kong company that audits Chinese factories for 158 U.S. companies. "It's very, very common that the goods you receive are not exactly what you ordered, either because the factory can't deliver or because the definition of the product is not clear enough."

New Danger: China finds problems with kids' snacks

Breteau should know. In the mid-1990s, he started a small trading company in Hong Kong, specializing in inexpensive gifts manufactured in southern China. When word got out that he was personally inspecting his suppliers, other traders asked him to do the same for them.

Now, he has almost 1,000 clients from 58 countries. His inspectors performed about 25,000 one-day factory checks last year, with 23% of the facilities earning failing grades because of poor factory hygiene, inaccurate product manuals, cosmetic blemishes on finished goods, even installation of the wrong electrical plug.

FULL story at link.

[opihimoimoi]

1. Temp aboration...Market dictates QUALITY...China will learn soon enough to

prevent loss of face and cheap goods due to shabby work, materiasls, deception.....

Japan went that route in the early days of her youth,,,,Circa 1950's to 80's

China will soon follow....quality goods equals sustainable markets....odds.....

[KT2000]

2. Yes - for example

A Washington company that makes state of the art electronic test equipment made the decision before sending the manufacturing to China, that there was really no need for their products to be state of the art. The owners (venture capitalists who buy such companies) are now trading on the name and reputation of the products they have cheapened. They own several well know companies that were one first quality but are now just cheap crap.

The funny thing is that Japan has forced one mandatory recall and one voluntary recall of these once fine electronic products - they start on fire. Japanese businesses buy products, take them apart, stress test them and find their flaws before placing a large order.

[BobRossi]

3. Made in China = Junk

Always has. I worked for a machine tool seller in the late 70's that imported some of the first goods allowed in this country from Red China.
They imported milling machines used to manufacture precision metal components. These machines were absolute shit, the parts from one supposidly identical machine would not fit on an other machine. Eli Whitney would have rolled in his grave!

Our trade alliance with China is an unholy one, America is being taken to the proverbial Chinese Cleaners. We replace quality American goods once manufactured by hard working Americans using America's abundant raw material with Chinese garbage manufactured by a slave labor force using material of dubious origin with no regard for the environment.

America has sold it's soul to the devil for cheap crap in exchange for a healthy manufacturing based economy.

[Nomad559]

4. All the hardware Apple sells

Is outsourced to China.

iPod maker admits breaking Chinese labor laws; says Apple approved sweatshop labor

http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/9988
"Apple Computer is getting into a deep PR mess over the antics of one of its Chinese partners," Nick Farrell reports for The Inquirer.

"After denying that it was running a sweatshop that would be familiar to Charles Dickens, Apple's Ipod manufacturer, Foxconn has finally admitted that it broken Chinese labour laws," Farrell reports.

[ljm2002]

5. An interesting question...

...I remember when "Made In Japan" meant shoddy workmanship. Of course nowadays "Made In Japan" does not have the same connotation. So things change.

It does take time. China has to act on the belated realization that they cannot afford to have the market associate "Made In China" with "products that kill our pets".

They should quit executing people over this stuff and start implementing systems to ensure base levels of quality and safety, *especially* of food items.

[rucky]

6. American companies take their work to China so they can cut corners.

Boy did their cheap Chinese labor cut some corners.

Point is, why don't we hold the brands responsible for supervising the production of their own fucking products?

[burrowowl]

7. The worm gear of cresent wrenches made in China

stink, most are not even fit for the home do-ti-yourselfer!
Now, think parts for aviation!